As is known, footwear used for some specific skiing techniques, such as the so-called "telemark" and "cross-country" techniques, must have particular technical characteristics that ensure optimum longitudinal flexing of the item of footwear and excellent resistance to lateral torsion while allowing even prolonged use of the item of footwear on mixed terrain, uphill and downhill, and maintaining excellent comfort for the user's foot, and must ensure lateral support and precise transmission of movements to the ski.
However, current items of footwear for such purposes are not free of drawbacks.
For example, compression often occurs on the metatarsal region during the flexing of a known shoe due to the corrugation of the upper of the item of footwear, consequently reducing the comfort of the item of footwear.
Furthermore, in footwear of this type the flexibility and tilt of the item of footwear are almost exclusively entrusted to the elastic characteristics of the materials used to manufacture it, and particularly to the sole of the item, in order to ensure both precise ski control when turning and high resistance to lateral torsion and to flexibility in the metatarsal region.
Obviously, since the materials employed must simultaneously have several different requirements to ensure good technical performance, the consequent result is always poor.